PhD candidates

Promoted and ongoing PhD candidates of whom I was or am the daily supervisor and co-promoter. All projects are in collaboration with other promoters indicated below.

Ongoing

1.		Resul Adanur GUARD – GyroMotion based AI for Unassisted Assault Real time Detection Resul’s research aims to develop a wearable safety tool that autonomously detects assaultive behavior by analyzing motion sensor data, rather than relying on manual user activation. It integrates artificial intelligence, motion sensing, and psychophysiological research to improve personal safety and psychological resilience in high risk situations. He received a full scholarship from The Republic of Türkiye Ministry of National Education, and is also co-supervised by Dr. Charmaine Borg and Prof. Ming Cao.
2.		Amey Bhole Robustness against adversarial attacks in images Amey’s research explores the integration of brain-inspired components into convolutional architectures to enhance their resilience against both white-box and black-box adversarial attacks. He is an external PhD student, and the co-promoter is Dr. Jiapan Guo (RuG).
3.		Changmin Tian Unsupervised segmentation of large hyperspectral electron microscopy images The goal of this project is to develop algorithms that can automatically segment subcellular structures in EM images. Her PhD studies are financially supported by the China Scholarship Council. The other promoter is Prof. Ben Giepmans (UMCG).
4.		Rafael Martínez García Peña Video based diagnosis of hyperkinetic movement disorders The goal of this project is to develop algorithms capable of diagnosing the type and severity of hyperkinetic movement disorders. This will be achieved through the analysis of RGB and depth videos of subjects performing protocol-based tasks. This PhD project is part of the NEMO project, funded by NWO OTP. The other promoters are Prof. Marina de Koning Tijssen and Prof. Michael Biehl.
5.		Peter van der Wal Robust learning of sparse representations with brain inspired inhibition The aim of this project is to investigate the role of inhibition inspired by the visual system of the brain with respect to energy efficiency, sparse representation, and robustness to perturbations. His project is funded by the CogniGron Center of the University of Groningen.
6.		Sabatino Esposito Face analysis in the wild for social robotics He is a double doctorate candidate affiliated with the University of Salerno and the University of Groningen. His other promoters are Prof. Mario Vento and Prof. Dimka Karastoyanova.

Promoted

7.		Steven N. Machetho CARAD: Computer-aided Analysis of Radio Astronomy Data Defended on 9 December 2025, University of Groningen. His other promotors are Prof. Dirk de Villiers (Stellenbosch University), Dr. Trienko Grobler (Stellenbosch University) and Prof. Stefan Wijnholds (Stellenbosch University).
8.		Anusha Aswath Automatic segmentation of cellular structures in large-scale electron microscopy images Defended on 24 June 2025, University of Groningen. Her other promotors are Prof. Ben Giepmans (UMCG) and Prof. Dimka Karastoyanova.
9.		Xueyi Wang Fall detection by egocentric vision Defended on 4 March 2024, University of Groningen. His other promotor is Prof. Dimka Karastoyanova.
10.		Guru Swaroop Bennabhaktula Leveraging image noise: source camera identification and increased robustness of convolutional neural networks Defended on 18 December 2023, University of Groningen. His other promotors are Prof. Enrique Alegre and Prof. Dimka Karastoyanova.
11.		Chenyu Shi Computer-aided diagnosis technologies in medicine Defended on 10 May 2022, University of Groningen. His other promotor is Prof. Nicolai Petkov.
12.		Ahmad Alsahaf Feature selection and intelligent livestock management Defended on 4 December 2020, University of Groningen. His other promotors are Prof. Nicolai Petkov and Prof. Roel Veerkamp.
13.		Jiapan Guo Brain-inspired computer vision with applications to glaucoma Defended on 4 December 2017, University of Groningen. Her other promotor is Prof. Nicolai Petkov.
14.		Andreas Neocleous Computing expert’s intelligence: A case in bio-medicine and a case in musicology Defended on 13 December 2016, University of Groningen. His other promotors are Prof. Nicolai Petkov and Prof. Christos Schizas.
15.		Nicola Strisciuglio Bio-inspired algorithms for pattern recognition in audio and image processing Defended cum laude on 10 June 2016, University of Groningen. His other promotors are Prof. Nicolai Petkov and Prof. Mario Vento.